In most commercial establishments where products are sold, the merchandise for sale is often placed on shelves, mounted on a wall or other structure, or otherwise displayed for potential customers. In addition to the products themselves, vendors often use signage to highlight their merchandise to customers and/or to provide such customers with details regarding products. It is often the case that the shelve or other display devices contain numerous products and, therefore, the signage used by the vendors may be not sufficiently highlight a particular item.
Signs commonly referred to as “shelf talkers” are known to be used by vendors to provide enhanced advertisement to certain products. This type of signage comprises a mounting or anchor portion, for fastening to a shelf, and a sign portion wherein the information being conveyed to the customer is displayed. In some cases, the sign portion depends upwardly or downwardly so as to allow customers to read the information when standing in front of the product. In other cases, the sign portion may protrude away from the shelf, sometimes orthogonal thereto, thereby serving to attract an approaching customer before the customer reaches the location of the product. As will be understood, the latter type of “shelf talkers” may be used to draw the attention of customers to a specific product or products.
Traffic, or road signs are ubiquitous in virtually every country. Such signs utilize specific, well known shapes for conveying information to drivers of vehicles. Examples of such shapes include, octagons (to signify “stop”), inverted triangles (to signify “yield”), diamonds (to signify “warning”). Other shapes are also known in the art. In addition, square and rectangle shapes are used to display directional or other such information. It is often only necessary for traffic signs to simply have one of the known shapes in order to provide adequate instructions to drivers, even in the absence of written words. For example, a red octagon would instruct a driver to stop without having the word printed on the sign. In some cases, icons or other symbols may be used with the signs to further clarify the intended message.
The present inventors have developed a unique system of signage for use by vendors that utilizes the well recognized significance of traffic signs for the purpose of directing customers to certain merchandise and/or to highlight particular information concerning such merchandise. The inventors have also developed a system of signage for mounting on shelving, wherein the signage includes a lighting means for further attracting attention to a particular area on display.